Joe Biel seems quite at ease on a recent Saturday morning, sitting for a conversation in his Chinatown live-work studio, sipping iced coffee. He faces a panoramic drawing of 1,124 tiny televisions aligned in towering stacks, each set with a meticulously rendered and often recognizable image on-screen. Biel, 45, has been working on the piece for two years and expects it will take him an additional year to complete. As eloquent and enthusiastic as he is about the work's sources and his process, "Veil," he admits, also makes him uncomfortable.

Re "The Many Layers of the Veil," Column One, Jan. 12: I've been following the fierce worldwide debate on the hijab since the mid-1990s when, as a cub reporter at Canada's national newspaper, I wrote about the phenomenon. Ten years ago, private school officials in Quebec made national headlines for expelling a young student who'd refused to remove her head scarf. Since then, I've spoken to women in oppressive Saudi cities, in lively souks in Turkey and Egypt, in bustling bazaars in India and Pakistan, as well as in malls in Canada and the U.K. Their concerns are the same: Whether you're a nun or a devout Muslim, the message shouldn't be about covering hair (or men lording their power over women)

What's behind the veil Re "French National Assembly approves ban on face veils," July 14 A recent Pew survey reported that more than 60% of Europeans favor the ban on full-face veils and only 28% of Americans do. This indicates to me that Europeans have a better appreciation for the ideal of true liberty for all individuals, an ideal for which our forefathers and mothers fought: the freedom to pursue self-chosen goals in life. Can a person whose face is always hidden in public realistically run for public office, be hired as a physician or as a schoolteacher, or serve in the military?

A Quiet Revolution The Veil's Resurgence From the Middle East to America Leila Ahmed Yale University Press: 352 pp., $30 When I was 13, one of my classmates came to school one morning wearing a beige head scarf. This was in the 1980s, in Morocco. Surprised by her attire, I joined a group of girls who gathered around her, watching them pepper her with questions. Our classmate calmly replied that she had decided to wear the hijab because that was what a "true" Muslim girl should do. This struck us as strange.

The unveiled one enters. That's what you notice first when Amal Basha, black hair flowing, hurries into the room, deploying sentences like poetic armies. She mentions that she's just returned from a human rights conference and is on her way to a seminar against torture. A man slides a tray before her and disappears. Tea? Coffee? A cigarette? A story? "I had to wear the full niqab when I was 8 years old," she says of the face veil worn by women here. "I couldn't breathe.

A few years ago, someone from the Feminist Majority Foundation called the Muslim Women's League to ask if she could "borrow a burka" for a photo shoot the organization was doing to draw attention to the plight of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban. When we told her that we didn't have one, and that none of our Afghan friends did either, she expressed surprise, as if she'd assumed that all Muslim women keep burkas in their closets in case a militant Islamist comes to dinner. She didn't seem to understand that her assumption was the equivalent of assuming that every Latino has a Mexican sombrero in their closet.

Re "Woman Says Veil Is a Must in License Photo," May 28: I was under the impression that, even though we have religious freedom here, we still have separation of religion and government. Wearing the veil is Sultaana Freeman's prerogative for her religion. The government has its own requirements. Note that Utah rescinded the multiple marriage law (which was a part of Mormonism) and went to the law of the land. I see other Muslim women who interpret the Koran as not requiring the veil.

Authorities have arrested a 25-year-old man in connection with the killing of five people in northern Nevada, officials said Wednesday. “This was senseless,” Lyon County Sheriff Allen Veil said at an afternoon news conference. “The taking of the lives of five people for a motive yet to be determined. No matter what it is, it's senseless.” Jeremiah Bean, 25, of Fernley, Nev., was arrested Monday and booked on two counts of burglary, authorities said. He was being held Tuesday at Lyon County Jail, they said.

France is a militantly secular state that is determined to remain culturally homogeneous. While holding dear the ideals of equality and human rights, the country also widely embraces assimilation -- the belief that to be French, immigrants and nationals alike must adhere to the language, customs, values and all-around French way of life. That is why France banned religious head scarves in public schools in 2004, and why lawmakers now want to prohibit women from wearing burkas or full-face veils in public places such as city halls and post offices, and possibly even parks and subways.